New online newsletter launched by hub group

An online newsletter has been launched to pass on useful information to people who can be helped by the community justice system.

The South Lanarkshire Community Justice Partnership has worked with the members of East Kilbride Women’s Hub to launch Talking Justice — which went live last week — and is believed to be the first initiative of its kind.

The newsletter — which can be found at www.talkingjusticeblog.wordpress.com — showcases activities that the hub members have benefited from and what they think would be of interest to others in their situation.

Liam Purdie, chair of the partnership, said: “Talking Justice has been created by one community to be of interest to every community.

“The members of the East Kilbride Women’s Hub have decided and supplied the content themselves, so it looks at community justice issues from their own point of view and drawing upon their individual experiences.

“This gives it even more relevance to others in the same or similar situations, as anyone reading it knows that it is talking about the experiences and opinions of people who have lived that life and understand the challenges they face.

“That is also one of the reasons that it is online, rather than printed – we felt that much of it would resonate with people in many communities around Scotland and even further afield, so we wanted to make it as accessible as possible.”

The concept of the newsletter was embraced by the women of the hub and they have been enthusiastic contributors.

Hub member Una Hamilton said: “There are a lot of things we do that have really helped us and so it is obvious that they could help other people as well if they only knew about them.

“This lets us take these things that have been such valuable experiences and make them public so anyone can see this.

“Hopefully many people will read it but if even just a few people find something that helps them, then it is all worthwhile.”